As a judge for this year's award I can't tell you too much about who's going to win, but what I can tell you is that the list of nominees not only reflects the diversity of modern music, but demonstrates how important inventive independent music remains. From Hospital and Hyperdub's influence on the mainstream mutations of Dubstep and EDM to Mute (as previously announced, label founder Daniel Miller will be honoured at this year's event) and 4AD's pioneering endeavours that have ploughed the way for so much modern electronic and alternative music. This playlist takes a few scoops of the past, present and the future, and hopefully the diverse mix will go some way to showing how healthy the independent music scene is right now.

This year's Independent Music Awards take place on October 29th, and will be hosted by Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq. More info here: http://www.musicindie.com/awards.